Author Archive: Justin Sewell

Following up on our first week impressions of Meerkat, we jumped in the water with Periscope (the official Twitter app) to see what the secret hype was all about. With competition innovating fast, is Periscope the Meerkat killer at launch?

Like every great startup, Meerkat exploded out of nowhere to catch the imagination of mobile video technofiles worldwide. Adoption is still rising as Miami concerts, Tech Talks and Blog Posts get Meerkatted. We took Meerkat for a spin to see what the hype is all about and if its ease-of-use twitter integration is really a live streaming game changer.

Streaming video is at an interesting crossroads right now. A generation of content creators raised on YouTube is transitioning to the more social live video experience, exponentially growing the entire streaming industry and building billion dollar streaming platforms. But the technology to support this exploding industry has taken baby steps to better production, and the learning curve for professional live productions is steeper than most YouTubers can handle.

The technical failure of Google Hangouts has done a disservice to the entire privacy conversation by limiting the use, re-use and remixing of Snowden’s comments. Mainstream news outlets have little to work with in reporting on his SXSW dialog and now are limited to paraphrasing his comments through anchor commentary.

Online video is still growing. YouTube’s stats are larger than ever, Vine is reaching critical mass with its first TMZ controversy, and all the live streaming services are pivoting toward profitability. Altogether business is booming, but creativity is still up-and-coming with very few YouTubers making a successful transition to television.